In the manufacture of air conditioner evaporator cores pairs of mating plates are assembled with air centers or corrugated fins between the pairs of plates. When these parts are brazed together the pairs of plates then become freon tubes in good heat transfer relation with the fins. Handling the loose parts as an unsecured assembly before the brazing step requires some special equipment. Certain related models of cores differ only in the number of pairs of plates in the assembly and are conveniently assembled on the same line. It is necessary then for the handling equipment and methods to automatically accommodate the different sized assemblies.
When it is realized that high production volumes and thus high rates, perhaps on the order of more than six parts per minute, are required, the equipment must be very reliable and durable as well as fast acting. Thus automatic adjustments for different assembly sizes is desirable to avoid down time for manual adjustments. The automatic adjustment makes possible running small batches of each size evaporator core.
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,421 to Breda et al. entitled "Method for Assembling Plate Type Heat Exchangers" discloses an arrangement for assembling the plates and fins using a pallet comprising a plurality of plastic blocks adjustably slidable on longitudinal rods, the blocks holding the pairs of plates and the intervening fins. As further shown in the patent, the assembly system has a power and free conveyor following an oval path which includes several assembly stations where the heat exchanger core is built in the pallet, a transfer station where the assembled core is transferred to a banding conveyor for the purpose of adding brazing fixtures and banding the assembly, and a brazing station where the core elements are joined by brazing. The present invention deals with the transfer station for transferring the core to the banding conveyor.